In a video conference environment for performing an electronic conference through a communication network, a video conference system is provided in each of locations in which participants of a conference come together and a plurality of such video conference systems communicate via the communication network. Each video conference system collects image information and audio information in a location in which the conference system is provided. The image information and the audio information are synthesized and the synthesized information is distributed to the respective conference systems. In each conference system, the image information is displayed on a display device provided in the video conference system and the audio information is outputted through a loudspeaker also provided in the video conference system.
People are often unable to attend the video conference or they may want to refer back to something that was said in the conference. However, there is no easy way to accomplish this. Recording a video conference usually involves manually setting up a camera and sitting through the meeting aiming it at whoever is talking. Furthermore, once the meeting is recorded, there is no quick way to search through the recorded meeting in order to find a specific part of the meeting.